Gender identity and sexual orientation development among young adult transgender men sexually active with cisgender men: ‘I had completely ignored my sexuality … that’s for a different time to figure out’

Abstract

View related articlesView Crossmark data Citing articles: 2 View citing articlesGender identity and sexual orientation development among young adult transgender men sexually active with cisgender men: 'I had completely ignored my sexuality … that's for a different time to figure out'

Kept in the closet: Structural stigma and the timing of sexual minority developmental milestones across 28 European countries

“…Specifically, at low levels of structural stigma, transgender respondents had later predicted ages of awareness and coming out, whereas cisgender participants had a later age of coming out and longer closet duration. Above, we suggested that later age of awareness among transgender (vs. cisgender) participants could result, in part, from the fact that many transgender people explore and relabel their sexual identities over the course of gender identity development (Hereth et al, 2020;Katz-Wise et al, 2016;Katz-Wise & Hyde, 2017). However, this research has primarily occurred in low structural stigma contexts in the US, and it is plausible that sexual identity exploration and relabeling is less common for transgender people in higher-stigma contexts.…”

“…Relative to cisgender respondents, transgender respondents reported becoming aware of their LGB identity at later ages. These differences may stem from the close connection between sexual identity development and gender identity development: because sexual identity is often (though not always) predicated on one's gender, sexual identity and gender identity development are deeply intertwined for many people (Hereth et al, 2020). For transgender people, gender identity development is often complicated by structural anti-transgender stigma Price et al, 2021), which encourages people to repress gender identities that do not match sociocultural expectations for the sex they were assigned at birth, even at the level of their own awareness (Hereth et al, 2020).…”

“…These differences may stem from the close connection between sexual identity development and gender identity development: because sexual identity is often (though not always) predicated on one's gender, sexual identity and gender identity development are deeply intertwined for many people (Hereth et al, 2020). For transgender people, gender identity development is often complicated by structural anti-transgender stigma Price et al, 2021), which encourages people to repress gender identities that do not match sociocultural expectations for the sex they were assigned at birth, even at the level of their own awareness (Hereth et al, 2020). Accordingly, to the extent that sexual and gender identity development are intertwined, sexual identity awareness might occur on a later timeline for transgender people relative to cisgender people.…”

“…Further, existing research points to a need to understand differences in the ways that structural stigma might impact these subgroups. In terms of gender modality (i.e., the relation of a person's gender identity to their sex assigned at birth; e.g., transgender, cisgender; Ashley, 2022), qualitative research has highlighted the complex intersection of gender and sexual identity development and intersecting cultural and structural forces impacting this development (Hereth et al, 2020). In population-based surveys, many transgender adults report sexual minority identities, for instance 42% in Sweden (Bränström et al, 2022) and 83% in the United States (Carone et al, 2021).…”

Gender, justice and empowerment: creating the world we want to see

“…Similar to McLean et al, Hereth and colleagues describe a 'renegotiating' of gender positions (Hereth, Pardee, and Reisner 2020). The authors explore the ways in which young transgender men and non-binary men in the USA navigate the complexities of gender and sexuality, creating and 'doing' new forms of both as they go (Hereth, Pardee, and Reisner 2020). The participants in their qualitative study vary greatly in their gender expression and sexual preferences.…”